Ryan: Good for Paterson

Based on the state budget he is submitting to the Legislature, Gov. David Paterson has made a calculated political decision. The voters want it straight.

He is looking down the barrel of a $15.4 billion dollar deficit, and so he has presented a spending plan that has more shared pain than the Inquisition. He is describing it as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and may not be that far off given that a projected 180,000 New Yorkers will get pink slips in the New Year.

Paterson is approaching his task with a mix of Truman pragmatism and Rockefeller business sense. He is telling us we all have to share the pain knowing full well that his unvarnished, no apology position is going to create a level of anger among special interest groups who want their own corner of the universe protected from the knife. In truth, he is speaking past them and appealing directly to the voters who have family budgets to manage. Paterson is hoping there will be recognition among taxpayers that he is ignoring political expediency and doing the right thing governmentally. It’s a brave move because sometimes voters forget that they wanted leadership in the first place.

The governor is coupling that Harry Truman’s “give ‘em hell” approach with the paring knife used by the likes of iconic business leaders such as Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Morgan. His budget eliminates several state agencies, compels others to trim their budgets by 10 percent, closes underutilized state facilities and proposes to lift expensive mandates now being borne by local governments. It tackles failing economic programs such as the Empire Zone program, and reviews new avenues for tax generation so that the burden doesn’t fall on those least able to afford it.

But the governor gets truly gutsy when he starts addressing specific sacred cows. Paterson’s budget includes a $3.5 billion health care savings package and a $698 million year-to-year reduction in school aid. This will bring howls from the stewards of these special interests who will refuse to acknowledge that the state deficit stands at $15.4 billion. If you put those dollars end to end, they would stretch from here to the Moon three times. And that’s not just anyone’s money. That’s yours. And mine.

So Paterson has been catapulted into being exactly what we wanted from a governor: a leader. If we fail him at this point in our state’s history then we will have no one to blame but ourselves as New York settles into a sea of red ink.

Desmond Ryan is executive director of the Association for a Better Long Island.

One comment

Too bad government is not held to the same standards as business. Yes, Paterson is doing a good job, but it is his job to balance the budget, just like it should be for every other politician. It is easy to raise taxes or reduce aid to schools. Naturally if you reduce aid to schools, the localities will raise our taxes as the schools need to to pay for higher salaries (at a time when industry is lowering salaries and/or reducing bonuses), retirement programs etc.
It is time that we the taxpayers say “enough” to our elected officials. We need to tell them that they have to make the difficult decisions. The LIRR is the worst run railroad in the country. How can they consider raising fares when the service is so poor. They really need to clean their house, starting at the top.